There are known in the prior art many objects such as cathode ray tubes, computer monitors, television tubes and the like which are formed from leaded glass. Such articles cannot be disposed of in sanitary land fill since they release lead into the environment under mildly acid conditions.
It is desirable that the leaded glass of which the articles mentioned hereinabove are formed be reclaimed for remelting and use in the manufacture of new articles. Articles such as cathode ray tubes contain evaporated aluminum, phosphors containing rare earths and cadmium sulfides and Aquadag which is a carbon/sodium silicate or iron oxide/sodium silicate coating. In addition, such articles have labels adhered to the surface thereof by suitable adhesives, iron anode buttons and cathode guns. All of these materials must be removed from the glass before it is suitable for reprocessing.
Attempts have been made in the prior art to recover leaded glass from articles such as cathode ray tubes and the like by acid processing to clean the articles of contaminants. Such processing, however, results in dissolving some lead and the highly toxic phosphors which in most instances contain cadmium and rare earth compounds. In addition, hydrogen disulfide is liberated when the acid contacts the phosphors. It will readily be appreciated that processing of this nature results in the release of pollutants and requires special waste treatment.